do you mind if i knit

My "Sarah London Scarf."

Hello, I've got something to show you!

I have to come clean, I've started a crochet project, without finishing my last project. Shockingly undisciplined, I know.

It's the scarf you see in the picture above, and it's a pattern I've worked out myself, inspired by someone who's crochet and colours I aspire to, Sarah London. She has a fabulous blog, which you can go to here. Infact, she's been doing a mystery crochet project over her last few posts, in which you can join in, by following her superb instructions.  Why not pop on over to her blog to see what the mystery is? I know how you like a bit of mystery.

I don't know if you remember these photos from a past blog post? I was showing you my "Granny Zig-Zag Scarf". This is the scarf I've abandoned for a short while, because I'm getting on with the new scarf. I've been working on it a little, here and there, and was working on it when I started my knitted "Hourglass Sweater", the pattern by Joelle Hoverson, from her book, "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". I have finished that sweater, but need to take photos of it, before I can show it to you.

So, let's see, what have we above?  Well, in the foreground, there's the "Sarah London Scarf", in the middle is the finished "Little Squares Scarf", and at the back, is the "Granny Zig-Zag Scarf".

Hmmmmmm, that's a few patterns to write up for you, isn't it? Let me apologise to those of you waiting for patterns for two of these scarves. I started to do a step-by-step pattern for the Little Squares Scarf, but it just kept on going wrong, or the light wasn't good enough to take photos. It takes a surprisingly long time to create those step-by-step tutorials, I was surprised just how long, when I did the pattern for my crochet square, that went into the Sisterhood Crochet Blanket. (Tutorial in the sidebar to the left, just incase you're wondering).

Anyway, back to the subject of the Sarah London Scarf. I'd like to show you the inspiration for the scarf, here. Sarah was doing these fabulous squares, that would make the most delicious blanket, if you made lots of them. The images of her squares have been lingering around in the recesses of my mind for a while. I decided the diagonal lines would look fab in a scarf, so I got crocheting Sarah's squares. But that didn't work out, the lines were zigzagging all over the place, when I was joining the squares together, and I thought that sewing lots of squares together wasn't what I wanted to do. So I had a think about what I could do to just make one continuous strip of diagonal lines, and after a bit of trial and error, I managed to work it out. So I've done all the trial and error bits for you, you'll be delighted to know, and now I have a healthy working pattern (not written out yet, but will be). I also worked out how to get the pointy bits on both ends, which you can see in the top photo.

This is the first time I've done any of this major "figuring a pattern out" malarky, and although it's really only a minor bit of working it out, I still feel I've achieved something.

But I couldn't have done it without Sarah's help. I've already e-mailed Sarah a picture of my scarf, and explained what I've done, and asked her permission to put up a pattern. She's very happy for me to post my pattern, which I was relieved about, I have to admit. I'm very conscious of not stepping on people's toes, and so I think it's very important to o.k. something like this with the person who's pattern inspired you, keeps everyone happy, and makes everything 'above board'.

Talking about patterns, Sarah has beautiful crochet patterns available on her blog. Some are free, some she charges a small fee for. I can't find a section in which all her patterns are conglomerated into one list, so you'll have to scroll back through her posts, but it's very enjoyable, you'll get the most enormous colour fix you've ever experienced.

And talking of colour fixes, aren't the yellow leaves above beautiful? Especially contrasting with the soft blue/green of my gloves, and the pink on the walls of my studio. I collected these three leaves while out walking the dogs yesterday, and spent the entire walk holding them in my gloved hand. You see I didn't want them to get crushed by being put in a pocket or bag, which is what normally happens. It was only at the very end of the walk I realised how lovely the yellow of the leaves was, against the colour of my gloves.

I thought to myself, "I'll photograph my gloved hand holding these leaves, for the blog".

Then I saw a ball of yarn.

This ball of yarn, in the photo above.

This is a colour in the Debbie Bliss 'Baby Cashmerino' range, and it's a completely new colour to me. Oh boy! I LOVE this colour! And I thought it would be the perfect finishing touch in my leaves photo.

Thought you might like to know the details on this yarn. Debbie Bliss Baby cashmerino, colour 340030, just incase you feel like treating yourself.

I don't know about you, but I love Debbie Bliss's Baby Cashmerino yarn, it's just wonderful to work with. I know it's not cheap, but it is so very 'worth it'.  I hope Debbie Bliss will carry on adding similar bright shades in other colours, to this range.

Now, what is it I meant to tell you?

Oh yes! Hugo and I are going away for a short holiday. While we're away, we'll be having our seventh wedding anniversary. It really doesn't seem like seven years we've been married, it's whizzed by. So I'm going to love you and leave you for a short while. I should be back blogging next Thursday hopefully, to tell you about our adventures, where we went, what the weather was like. And hopefully I won't be reporting any arguments. It's times like these, arguments happen, isn't it?! I'm sure we'll be just fine! We're going to a beautiful place, but I'll tell you where on my return. Take care, and I look forward to 'seeing' you when I get back. Ta-ra and cheerio, love Vanessa xxx

Mist - - eerie -- ous.

Hello! Would you like to know what Ellie's favourite word is? (That's Ellie above, who will be familiar to many of you). Her brother, Douglas, will be on the floor somewhere.

You'd like to know what Ellie's favourite word is?! Actually I should say phrase really.

I don't know if I should write it on my ever so clean and unblemished blog, it's pretty rude.

I'll tell you at the end, so I don't put you off reading the rest of this post.

There's Douglas, my beloved small boy, waiting patiently for his Auntie Anne. Auntie Anne is my dog nanny. You never heard of a dog nanny?! Oh, and her nannying services are entirely free of charge.

I know, I'm a very, very , very fortunate dog/child owner.

Anne takes the doggies for walks in the morning, on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is her day off, but she takes them out on Friday. It makes the most enormous difference to the amount of time I have to get on with work. Huge.

Anne adores our dogs, and they love her to bits.

I do the walking when she can't, and recently, she's been away, so I've done all the dog walking, and it's something I've enjoyed, even though it seems to be very time consuming.

So, the mornings Anne walks them, they wait, tense and excited, sitting like they are, in the above photo, while I'm at the computer, reading all your lovely comments, from my blog post the evening before. Then the doorbell rings, and there is much squealing and barking, and Douglas tries to rugby tackle Ellie, and she barks frenziedly, and there is generally much excitement, while I open the door to greet Anne with a big thankful smile. 

Anyway, as I mentioned, I've been doing the dog walking recently, because Anne has been away. And the other day, I was very glad to be doing the walking, because outside, the weather was 'ghostly'. I took my camera with me on the walk, so I could share the atmosphere with you, and here are the photos I took.

Here we are, on our lane, at the start of the walk. Don't the trees look bare?

The mist makes everything look exquisite. Corners are softened, perspective enhanced.

It's the church yard, but we're not going into the church yard.

We're walking past the church yard, and on a bit, till we reach this lane. 

A grumpy man with his frail looking Greyhound mutters as he whisks past me, (strange behaviour, because the other day I got chatting to him, as we walked our dogs, and he was very friendly).

His wife, lagging behind with a little Jack Russell, apologises for her husband, and his stepping into my camera shot. "Isn't it horrible weather," she remarks. I couldn't help thinking the mist was atmospheric, and quite exciting.

I linger on the spot, till the man and his wife, and their doggies, disappear into the mist in the distance. 

Walking on, the doggies snuffling around behind me, we arrive at this circle of trees. Within the circle of trees there are a few benches dotted around. I've never seen anyone sitting on them.  

Oooohh, what's beyond the Beech hedge?

Nothing? 

This is the 'nothing' beyond the Beech hedge.

I do love a bit of mysterious!

I've always wanted to be able to believe in ghosts, by bumping into one. Sadly, I've never met a ghost, though I've heard other people talk of their terrifying ghostly experiences. When I was a college student, many years ago, I went on a trip to Wales, and we stayed in an old stately pile. The girls were all put in one enormous room, and we each had an old bed to sleep in, that looked like it had been used in the First World War. We were told that a ghost had been seen in our dormitory, which seemed to unsettle everyone.

Well, everyone, except for me. I wanted to meet the ghost.

So later on in the evening, while everyone was carousing like students do, I slipped away for an early night.

I got into bed, feeling like some brave explorer, wondering what my reaction would be, when the ghost appeared.

I waited.

And waited.

And nothing happened, so disappointing. Then some of the other girls came into the room, to go to bed, which was extremely annoying, as I hadn't seen the ghost yet. And of course, the ghost never turned up.

So, it's not that I don't believe in ghosts, no, that's not it all. What I believe is this. Ghosts sense I'm not frightened of them, so they deliberately don't appear for me.

Just kidding!

No, I'll believe in ghosts, the moment I see one, but till then, well, I'm healthily unfrightened by the thought of them, which probably means I don't believe in them, doesn't it?

It's getting dark, so time to turn back, head home.

Back down the lane. I've always loved this lane, lined with trees.

When we get to the church, we go back around it in a different direction.

There's the church, LOOMING darkly. 

And there's the church yard, with all the old grave stones.

You may think I'm morbid when I say this, but I find graveyards fascinating. Sad, but fascinating  never-the-less. As I read and mull over the loving inscriptions carved into the headstones marking each grave, I feel very sad when I see a baby is buried there, or think, how amazing, that grave dates back to 1782, I also get a sense of relief, that I'm very much alive, and how much I enjoy life.

These branches in the photo above, are like a curtain.

This walk, in the mysterious and eerie atmosphere of the mist, makes me feel like I've been transported onto the set of a film, a film set in North Yorkshire, the script adapted from a wild and passionate book by one of the Bronte sisters. It's very exciting, that feeling!

Must get on home before it gets dark and the vampires emerge.

Noone else is out and about, noone relaxing on these benches. 

Not even a ghost, on this lone bench.

That would have made a great photo opportunity, a ghost sitting on this single bench, all alone, don't you think?

Righty-ho, we're going home, back to the warmth. Back to a steaming hot cuppa and a fire blazing in the wood burning stove. (You'll have to imagine the cuppa and the fire, because I don't have photos of those).

Now, at the beginning of this post, I promised I'd reveal Ellie's favourite phrase didn't I?

"Bugga off".

Yes, that is Ellie's most used phrase. She's an independent little girl. Likes her own space. Doesn't always take kindly to affection, or being picked up, or being told what to do.

Ellie sighs A LOT.

So, my dear readers, this post today was a little out of character for me, wasn't it? Very little bright colour content, I know. I just had to share my misty walk with you, and mist isn't really very colourful, is it? Infact, it has a way of softening things, and making them disappear. But tomorrow, I have a post in mind for you, and that's all colour, colour, COLOUR! So sweet dreams tonight. Cheerio. Love Vanessa xxx

Sock happiness.

Hello, it's me, your spotty sock loving lady, (try saying that without tripping).

I've been saving this spotty sock subject matter for just the right moment.

Actually, the truth is, I was going to take a load of photos of my feet modelling these socks, with various coloured trainers, but that hasn't been 'got round to', and I'm ever so keen to show you these socks. These socks my very generous husband bought me. I thank my lucky stars I have a husband who is prepared to spend lots of money on socks, how many husbands would understand, and actively welcome sock loving? And buy this boxed set of socks?

This box set of spotty socks from Boden. 

I must admit, I did drop a casual "how would you feel about buying me the most gorgeous socks ever?" And I warned him that they were very expensive, and would he like to take a look at these ever so lovely socks on the Boden site. The fact that I rarely, if ever, ask Hugo to buy me something, other than for Christmas and Birthdays, went very much in my favour, because he realised I REALLY REALLY wanted these socks. (I wonder how much time should elapse before I repeat this? Five years maybe? When I want to, and with important things like this, I have a razor sharp memory. Shame it doesn't stay razor sharp at other times).

I do like my socks, you may recall from a couple of posts I've done in the past. I like Mr. Sock-man's stall in the Wednesday market. He didn't seem phased by my request to photograph his socks, infact he seemed quite proud of his socks, and tried to give me a bit of directing in where I should take my photos from.

He was ever so keen that I photograph his stall as a whole, which I did dutifully.

Shall we get back to looking at my spot socks?

I love these colours, especially the brighter colours. When I wear the brown socks, it will have to be with my battered old turquoise trainers, because I think that brown and turquoise contrast nicely.

It's very difficult to choose a favourite amongst these pairs, too difficult. 

I do love the green and purple combinations.

The coral and turquoise pairs do it for me too.

And what better visual exercise can there be, than  finding yarn that mimics the colours in some of my socks? 

Did I actually say it?

I LOVE these socks.

LOVE 'em LOVE 'em LOVE 'em.

But there's just one thing, although I'm a knitter, and I have knitted myself one pair of socks, knitting socks just isn't my cup of tea. I always feel that, after all that knitting work, I would want my efforts to be visible, and socks are on the subtler side of subtle. My tastes lie on the louder side of loud. I don't want my knitting to be hidden away in my shoes.

There's a very nice lady at my knitting group, who only ever knitted socks. She was obsessed with knitting socks, and used to knit them every waking moment. She'd arrive at the knitting group, wearing a pair of her hand knitted socks and a bright green pair of shoes, and I thought they were wonderful.

Then she stopped turning up to our Wednesday night knitting group.

Many, many months later, she returned, and after returning a few more times, (and my noticing that she was now knitting jumpers and cardigans, on large needles, not socks), I tentatively asked why she'd not been coming to our knitting group. Well, one reason was that the group clashed with a fundraising event that she was doing every Wednesday. But the other reason was that she had to stop knitting. She couldn't hold the needles to knit. Knitting was painful. She had done so much sock knitting, (and that is mostly done on thin little double pointed needles), that she'd got a condition where it was too painful to knit. (At this point in her story, I GASPED with horror, I can tell you). When she recovered, the doctor advised her not to knit with tiny needles, or the pain might return. I think she was off work for two months with the pain, so if the pain was to return it would be disastrous.

So she's now knitting things on a much larger scale.

One evening, she said something which I thought was interesting. She said that people now comment on her knitting, they never used to when she knitted socks.

And that is precisely why I don't knit socks. I'm a sucker for praise, and I like people to comment (preferably nice comments), on my knitting, and to do that, they need to be able to see the knitting in question. That's not so easy when your socks are tucked into your shoes, and under a trouser leg.

Don't get me wrong, I think knitted socks are gorgeous, and was very happy to receive a pair, knitted just for me, from my Mother-in-Law, Susan. I just don't like knitting them myself. I wonder if people who love to knit socks are attracted to the speed of achieving a finished project? For them, it's not about people seeing their endeavors, they just get huge satisfaction from having completed a pair of socks in a fraction of the time it takes to finish a sweater.

Maybe sock knitters are the sprinters of the knitting world, and sweater knitters are the long-distance runners? I'm a long distance runner myself.

Just before I leave you to go to my Wednesday night knitting group, I'd just like to share a lovely message with you. This relates to yesterday's post, and the subject of very nice messages I've received by people who have bought my paintings. Lorraine bought a painting from me recently.

When she e-mailed me on receiving her painting, she hadn't read my blog post from yesterday, so she wasn't in the least bit prompted to write the things she did. I asked her if I could include her message in a post, and she was happy for me to do that. I want to include it in todays post, because, well, it's just rather wonderful, I think you'll agree. Here it is.

Hi Vanessa,
  Just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU!!  My little heart skipped a beat when my beautifully presented painting (these little touches mean so much) arrived today - how excited was I to receive this delightful work of art - I love, love LOVE IT!!!!
  I knew it would look perfect in my living room and it really does.  My day, which had been on the down side, was lifted beyond my dreams.  How delicate are the winter berries in that beautiful little oriental teacup...just perfect -
 So imagine my surprise when I looked on your blog just now -WOW!!!  My poor little heart nearly jumped out of my ribcage and cartwheeled around the room - How gorgeous to see my pretty parcel, so carefully wrapped with my lovely label - Thank you, thank you , thank you!Please keep inspiring and generously sharing your colourful life with us.
 Love and blessings,
 Lorraine xxx

I think that's a very heart warming message, don't you?

Well, dear readers, before I go, let me thank you for all your lovely comments on yesterday's post. I appreciate them enormously, but you already know that don't you? Still, I like to say it anyway.  Cheerio, I'm off to knitting. Love Vanessa xxx

Just taking a look back.

Hello dear readers, did you think I'd done a runner?! I know Lucy at Attic 24 is cutting back on her blog posts, and I imagine that anyone who has a blog sometimes feels weary, and can identify with Lucy. I know I come across as chipper and energetic all the time, but sometimes that's me ignoring that I'm feeling tired, and not wanting to admit it to you, dear readers. There is such a thing as "blogging happiness", something inwhich, as you sit down to do your blog post, the brain clicks, and zap, happy, happy. The moment I type in that word "hello", that's me off on my happy hour. I may have not been feeling up to blogging a moment prior to that happy hello, but that magic hello deals with any weariness. Plus, all your comments keep me going on this blogging journey. I love to receive comments, just love it!

It's become a big thing for me when I miss a days blogging, I always feel like I've failed somehow. But yesterday I just didn't feel like putting up a post.....................

Anyway, on to the subject of today's blog. My little watercolour paintings. The number of pictures for sale in my etsy shop is dwindling. I've gradually been selling them, which is very nice, I have to say. And last Thursday I sold another one to Lorraine, which has been packaged up and sent off, hope she's pleased with it.

This is the painting Lorraine bought , in the photo above. It always feels a bit strange parting with them, I don't know why, just does.

And while I'm on the subject of my painting, do you remember me lamenting how I'd lost two paintings? I went on about it in this post. A couple of weeks ago, I found them in a pad of paper. I'd slipped them in to keep them safe, when I was moving my studio into the house. When I found them, just by chance, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was happy to find them, on the other, I was extremely annoyed with myself for having put them in such a silly, non-sensical place.

So, selling another picture, and finding the lost pictures, got me thinking, and wondering. How many pictures have I sold on etsy and privately? What have I painted? Well, numbers, (unless it's about how much money I have to spend on yarn or whatever), don't interest me, so I'm not sure how many I've sold. And as for what I've painted, well, there's only one way of finding out, and that's to rummage through old photos of paintings, and see what I've been up to.

Would you like to join me in having a look?

These aren't all the paintings I've done, I just had a look in my etsy shop, in the sold section, but I can't find the photos to add to the mosaic. I haven't done any more of these little paintings for a while now, crochet and other things took over, but I would like to do some more, I enjoy painting them, it's something fresh, away from work. I'm my own master when I do these paintings.

Occasionally, when someone receives a painting they've bought from me, I get a lovely message from them. I think there's one person who's messages charmed me completely. When I asked Nessy if she'd mind me sharing her reaction with you, she was happy for me to go ahead. These are the two e-mails she sent me, which bowled me over. 

Hello Vanessa
Your painting arrived today and thank you so much for sending it special delivery so it wouldn't get delayed by the postal strike. Mr. Postie and me had a good old chat about recent strike behaviour which we both find a bit silly. And annoying.
Anyway.
 I have been squealing with excitement all day and am yet to unwrap it as the
anticipation of the spotty jacket is part of the thrill. As a result I am still admiring it sitting patiently on the desk over wine, spooks and the raised eyebrows of my husband.
 Wine-ramblings aside. I have attached my favourite shot (it has travelled to the fuschia pink tea set unit, the kitchen table and back to the living room today). 
 Will no doubt darken your email inbox once I have opened it!
 many thanks
 Nessy
   
And then, a few days later.

Hello, hello, hello.
A busy weekend punctuated with peeks at my lovely new painting! The unwrapping had to happen in stages. First glimpse in the evening as the house was finally calm and tidy. Then repacked so I could enjoy the big reveal the next day in good morning light, before the clamour of the breakfast rush began.
 I love it.
 The irridescence on the flowers leaves almost look like they have been touched up for show by a make up artist. I love the way the depth of the watercolours contrast with the gentle, quiet emulsion blue.
 This new gem is going to be much admired in the dining room. I was thinking of a simple white frame if you approve. Photographs of Spotty will follow once she is nestled in her new home.
Hope you and yours  are doing well.
Nessy   

Nessy even sent me a photo of the package, still wrapped, waiting to be opened, but I can't seem to transport it from the e-mail to here, which is a shame. 

This is the painting Nessy bought.

Are they not wonderful, her messages?

I must, must, must do some more paintings!

Well, I'm off to do some crochet now (!). Ta-ra and take care. Love Vanessa xxx

My favourite type of matting.

Well hello there! Isn't it ever so nice to be at the beginning of the weekend? I must admit, I'm feeling a bit tired. I have myself partly to blame, because I've just been sucked into the site that is Ravelry, searching for patterns for crochet dresses, (31 pages), and then going to the knitted dresses section (over 80 pages, I gave up through lack of stamina). I fancy crocheting, or knitting a dress. That would mean abandoning all my unfinished projects, so I'm just going to have to exercise a bit of self control, and put it off for a while.

I did knit a dress once, from Lily Chin's book, where she uses big yarn. But I obviously got the tension completely wrong, because it turned out to be a bit short, and so is now officially a jumper. It was the guage instructions that stumped me at the time, the instrustions were to work out the guage over cables! I gave up, just couldn't see how you can count the number of stitches in a row over a cable pattern.

I'm getting a little side tracked here.

I've also realised that my normal method of revealing what I'm working on, (as in showing you a piece at different stages, leading to the big reveal), has been diminished by my first photo of this post, revealing the finished hooky mat, the one I said I'd show you, in yesterday's post (where I revealed the proddy mat I'd finished).

The hooky mat, in the first photo, has a very different look to the proddy mat above. I prefer the first, hooky mat . Maybe part of the reason is the large area of navy in the heart cushion, I really don't like using dark colours, but that's what we were provided with on the course. I managed to sneak the brighter colours in, from my own stash of wool fabric. I also prefer the detail you can achieve with hooky mats, rather than the big, bold statements you get when prodding.

To get the best effect with looking at this craft, you really need to see them from a distance. I'll take a photo of my hooky mat (the one with the flowers on it), from a distance, when I've made it into a cushion cover, then you'll see the full effect.

I have my next design already drawn up, and stretched on a frame. A frame, I have to add, that was made by my lovely husband. He also made the stands. He's really quite wonderful. I know just how fortunate I am to have a husband who is a DIY'er and a great maker of things. Very fortunate lady indeed.

I'm positively itching to get started on it, but first I have to cut about fifty jumpers into strips. Yes. Fifty at least. Well, heigh-ho, I suppose I should get going on it then, shouldn't I?! Have a lovely weekend, take care, and see you on Monday.
Love Vanessa xxx

From rags to rugs!

Hello? How are you? I haven't enquired for a while, have I? Hope you're very well, fine, and dandy? I'm fine and dandy thank you.

I've been mulling over how I'm going to show you my new hobby, which I am now admitting is.............................. 'matting'! Some call it 'rag rugging. And there are different types of matting, of which I'm going to show you one today, and one tomorrow.

I was very impressed that some of you guessed! Sorry if you were hoping it was going to be quilting, or needlepoint, or tatting, or felting, or batik painting, it's none of those! Though there's time for those at a later date, isn't there?! That last sentence might tip Hugo over the edge, he's surrounded by my hobbies enough as it is, without me adding more. I must admit, it's taken a couple of years for me to finally succomb to the temptation of matting. That's how long I've really, reeeaally wanted to take it up. I refrained from starting a new hobby, because I already have a yarn stash the size of Everest, and am consumed with my knitting and crochet, and thought I wouldn't be able to fit something else in. Well I have. I juggle hobbies now.

I first came across Proddy matting and Hooky matting when Hugo and I visited a place called Beamish. The lady in the photo above is making a Proddy mat, some call them Clippy mats, it just depends where you're from, I'm going to call it a Proddy mat, because you 'prod' a hole in the hessian, and push one end of your fabric strip through, and then a small space along, you prod another hole, with your pointy prodder, and push the rest of your fabric strip through. You work from the wrong side of your mat. If you were to turn the lady's mat over, you'd see a 'pile' effect, like on the cushion cover I made below.

You see, the pile is thick, created by the fabric strips.

This is the back of that cushion cover, as I was working on it, on the course I did to learn matting.

I was constantly being reminded of matting when I went to the Agricultural shows, in the Summer months. There would often be an area in one of the tents, with a group of ladies demonstrating matting. I just found it fascinating, and enchanting.

I was inspired by their wonderful creations, and their naive quality. I took my first tentative step towards finally committing to matting, by approaching the ladies, enquiring how I could learn to make my own mat.

That's how I came to spend four Sundays over the last few months, driving an hour and a half, to a little village hall, and spending the day learning how to mat.

The first two Sundays were spent learning how to do a Proddy mat, over the remaining two Sundays, we learnt how to do a Hooky mat. I prefer the Hooky mat technique, you can get more detail, and sort of 'draw' with the strips of fabric.

Here you go, the tools of the trade! You've got the hooking tool on the far left, in the photo above, and the prodder in the middle. The scissors are shaped specially for trimming the pile, on a proggy mat.

My favourite of the books above, is the "Rags to Riches" by Rosemary E. Allan. There are lots of photos of old rugs, lots of inspiration.

And in the above photo we have just a few old woollen jumpers, having been washed and felted, and cut up, ready to be turned into long, narrow strips.

Actually, this is the worst part of the whole matting process, it's unbelieveably time consuming and dull, but very neccessary, unfortunately.

Hugo just asked me "when is it enough, a pile of rags?" I said, "when it reaches the ceiling". Hugo replied, "or fills two rooms, maybe?"

Here's the back of my proddy cushion cover. It is nice to actually finish things, isn't it?

Well, dear readers, tomorrow I'll show you my Hooky cushion cover if you like? It's easily my favourite of the two cushions, and I prefer the hooking technique (such an unfortunate term for it, don't you think?).
Ta-ra then. Love Vanessa xxx

Dashing around.

Helloeeeeee, I'm dashing around today................. Just finished work for today, just got to eat supper, and then clear up, and then just got to dash out to knitting, where I will breath out and relax.

But I couldn't not pop by and give you a great big fat hint as to what my new hobby is, could I? (Just in case you didn't read yesterday's blog entry, I was being all mysterious about a new hobby I've started, and there was much guessing going on in the comments you left me!). Guessing games are great fun, when you're not the one guessing! So I had to show you something. I don't have time to go into great detail about my new crafting hobby I've adopted, as I'm just about to go and have supper, but I will do my best to give you a full "I love my new hobby" post tomorrow.

Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

A Flower Cake.

Hello! A bright and cheery hello! So sorry to be absent yesterday, my usual blogging time was spent visiting my Sister-in-Law, Tamsin, because it was her Birthday, and we wanted to deliver her card and gift, and ended up staying for a glass of celebratory bubbly, something I can never say no to.

I hope you all had a good Halloween weekend? My only experience of Halloween this year was the night before Halloween.

Every year we get opportunists ringing our doorbell before Halloween night, (it used to be up to a week before). The little blighters will be wearing a mask which they have bought, and made no other effort to dress up. They'll do the 'trick or treat' thing. Well, we get sweets in for Halloween, to give out, not the night before, and certainly not a week before. And not to some lousy chancer who's made no effort.

So, my Halloween experience is this.

Last week, the night before Halloween, the door bell rings. I think it must be the postman with a late delivery, thoughts of Halloween do not cross my mind. I open the door. There is a boy, of about thirteen, standing on his own, in jeans, and a hood pulled over his head, and the most SCARY mask on. He mumbles something. But I'm in shock, and also taken unawares, and scared. I have to admit, a shocked expletive came forth from my mouth, and I slammed the door shut. Just like that, not thinking, just reacting.

So there you have it, my Halloween experience. I'm just not used to seeing a hooded lad in a bloomin scary mask on my doorstep, that's all. 

Anyway, back to the main theme of my post for today, my Flower Cake.

A few months ago, I was passing my favourite florist, The Flower Room. Julie, who runs it, has a wonderful eye, and is very creative, and I just love going into her shop, (but try not to do it too often, it can end up being draining on my purse). The next best thing to going into her shop, is to gaze at the window displays. And the  picture above shows one of her displays I particularly loved.

When I saw the flowers, made to look like a cake, I rushed home to get my camera.

Julie was tremendously accomodating with allowing me to take photos. While I was snapping away, and thinking, "how WONDERFUL is this!" I was also wondering how Julie had done it. I thought I was fortunate enough to be allowed to take photos, and that asking how she'd made the flower cake would be a bit cheeky.

I was desperate to ask, but didn't!

And actually, I didn't have to ask, because Julie volunteered the 'how to'. Wasn't that nice of her? I'm thinking you might like to know the 'how to'? Would I be right?!

O.k. here you go: Take your block of florists foam, and cut it into a block smaller than your cake stand, or whatever you're going to put your flower cake on. Whilst it's still dry, you need to shape it, round off the edges, to get a domed effect, (keeping it flat on the bottom so it sits on the cake stand). Now you want to soak it in water, so just put it in a bowl of water for a few hours, or overnight, untill it is all soaked through. Julie used Chrysanthemum's for her display, and I chose to use them too, because they are long lasting. Place your wet florists foam block on your cake stand, and start cutting the stems of your flowers. I think I cut them to about five centimetres, but see what suits you best. Now start pushing the trimmed flower stems into your foam. You'll want the flower stems to stand out from the foam, and the idea is to keep pushing in flower stems to create a domed effect, or whatever shape it is you want. I was a little paranoid about my florists foam drying out, so I think I watered it too much over the following two weeks. I think that foam can hold a lot of water, so it doesn't need watering every day.

And that, dear readers, is your Flower Cake done!

I chose to go for BRIGHT in my Flower Cake, surprising hey?!

Thought I'd show you the other little arrangements Julie had in her window. She'll have used the florists foam for this little number.

I imagine there's a small bit of florists foam in this gorgeous tea cup too.

I like the idea that you can apply the big flower cake making principles to the smaller scale creation above. It would be a lot cheaper to create this one, but still be splendid.

I must admit, presenting this as someone's Birthday cake could be a mistake, unless you were presenting it to a die-hard lover of flowers like me. Can you imagine the looks of disappointment, as faces full of expectations for something edible and yummy, had this very inedible creation placed before them?!

It would make a lovely table decoration at a wedding though, don't you think?

Oooh! I forgot to mention the weekend. Saturday was sunny, so I ventured out in to our neglected garden/jungle, and started trimming/hacking back. Gosh things have grown this year. This summer, I did very little gardening. There were very few sunny days on weekends. Oh, and we were very busy visiting other people's gardens, as part of the open gardens for charity scheme, as I recall. And there were all those country fairs too. My poor garden. Well, I'm paying for it now, because there is a HUGE amount of tidying up to do. And what about Sunday? Ah-ha! Sunday! Well, that's something I will reveal another time, as part of another post. To give you a hint, I've started another hobby, and I've been doing a course, to learn how to do it, and you will never guess in a million years what it is. (It is crafting, that's all I'll say). Oh, and I'm loving it.

Dear readers, I have to go now. Thank you so much for popping by, and thank you so very, very much for all the lovely comments you've been leaving me.
Ta-ra! Love Vanessa xxx

Hen's gifty goodness, part 2.

Hello! I'm back, I'm back with more gifts to show you!

Before you continue with this 'part two', you might like to read part one, if you missed yesterday's post. You can find it here.

You read that? Yep? Goody, I shall now continue with my 'every detail' reveal.

Hen's beautiful bag had been revealed, and I was at the point where I was about to open all the gifts inside, which you can see above. Just before I was going to start undoing ribbon, I glanced at the envelope in the bag, and thought to myself, open that first. Very unusual self-control was going on, normally I get at the wrapped gifts first.

So the pile of gifts were put to one side, and I fished out the envelope. Ooooohhh, what have we here? A great big envelope decorated with beautiful images cut out of magazines, is what we have. Thoughtful down to the last detail is Hen, don't you think?

I do like these cups,  so nice of Hen to use this pic on the envelope, and not keep it for herself. I cut things out of magazines, so I know how precious these sort of images are.

Even the back of the envelope was decorated! How generous is that! 

Inside the envelope, I found all these things above! I tell ya, Hen gave me some top notch magazine clippings, that is generosity personified in my book. I'd like to show you some of them in more detail.

I love this photograph Hen, thank you so much for giving this to me, I love the colours, the flowers, the shelves. I must go and have a look in the attic, I'm sure there's some blue shelves a bit like these, stored up there. And I have some of these beakers. I'd better finish this post before I rush up to the attic.

Is this chair not gorgeous?! And the rug, I love the rug! 

Just got to show you a detail of this fab photo. Love this photo. (Don't actually know how Hen could bear to part with this photo!).

The rug above, I, just like Hen, really, really like this rug. The pattern and the colours are 'modern yet traditional', a phrase I quite like.

And just to round off the reveal of the contents of the envelope, here's the humorous card Hen enclosed, with hand written letter inside. That's the correspondence part of our swap.

Now, would you like to see the gifts?

These gifts?!!! 

You would?!

O.k. what shall we start with?

Let's start with this one shall we? It's hard to know where to start isn't it?  Note the very lovely tag, made by Hen, really very ingenious too, I imagine this is a great way to use up off-cuts and snippets of fabric, that might normally go in the rubbish bin. 

Mini Blackcurrants, coated in milk chocolate. YUM!  I tell you, these are delicious, and sinfully moreish. Needless to say, they didn't last long, and sharing them with Hugo was an act of self-sacrifice on my part. To be fair on Hugo though, he did let me eat the majority of them.

Ah-ha! What do we have here? An intriguing looking gift. With another gorgeous gift tag. I particularly covet that snippet of fabric on the bottom left of the tag , the one with the tiny rose buds, and the green background.

Now let me pause before I open this, and point out the lovely ribbon, and also mention the gorgeous wrapping paper. To me, this looks like very special wrapping paper, and expensive wrapping paper, it's very good quality. This wrapping paper is very much appreciated and loved, and each piece has been carefully smoothed out and placed in a drawer, not to be re-used, just to be owned forever by me, and inspire me too.

I opened the wrapping paper very carefully, revealing tissue paper, and then this lovely bowl, with more wrapped goodies inside! How exciting to open a gift, to reveal something gorgeous, with more gifts nestled tantalisingly in the bowl!

Sugar mice!  Wonderful! To be added to my line-up of sugar mice that sit in the armoire in my studio . All wrapped in different coloured tissue paper, what fantastic attention to detail. That stripy tissue paper is divine.

My sweet mice, all lined up, and ready to join forces with  the other sugar mice I have.

Colour colour colour! I love all the colours! The colours of the sugar mice, and the blue, red and pink stripes on the bowl. I'll be keeping the bowl in my studio.

Now, what shall we open next?

Let's open this one shall we? 

Ooh, oohh, oooohhhhh Hen! These wrist warmers are just FANTASTIC! Love the colours, the buttons, the yarn (they're lovely and soft), and they are an absolute perfect fit! I do expect quite a bit of jealous admiring looks when I wear these. I've been wearing them while I work non-stop, but they'haven't had much of a public outing yet.

Aren't those buttons fab! Let's have a closer look shall we?

Those Turqouise buttons are wonderful aren't they, thanks for parting with them Hen! 

Thought I'd let you see just how perfect a fit these are. (Bit of a blurry photo, sorry about that). 

What's next?!

Another beautifully wrapped gift................. Do love that ribbon, love the colours in it. It will be carefully stored away, that ribbon.

Shall we open it?

Isn't the cover of this book stunning? It's a rather fab little book actually, jam packed with stitches and info. All very elegantly presented. At the moment, it's sitting on my bedside table, ready for bed time reading. I think this beautiful book is going to prove to be very useful, and I love that it's a lovely object, apart from being handy reference.

Can you believe there is another gift? Hen is so generous, and I love being at the receiving end of her generosity! This is the last gift, so shall we get going on unwrapping it?

Oooohh!  Beautiful.  Hen assures me these are tea towels. But if you felt them, they are so soft, and such luxurious quality, I can't bring myself to allow them anywhere near where Hugo might be cooking. He has been known to burn holes in treasured vintage linen tea towels before, by using them as oven gloves. So these precious towels will have to be for my own personal use only, or even just for display.

Or I suppose they could be used when very posh guests are visiting. Well, that will be never then, because we've never had, and probably never will have, very posh guests to visit. I don't like things to be stored in cupboards when they're meant to be used though, so these will be used, I just haven't decided in what capacity yet.

Aren't the tassels FAB?

Lets have a little summing up of all my treasures shall we?

 

What a fortunate lady I am, do you not think? Yes, very fortunate to share the same tastes as a very generous person. Hen is always very generous with her blog posts too, they are always nice and full of witty banter and lovely photos. You can find Hen's blog here. If you like Hen's handmade gifts, I'm just going to plug her shop, and direct you to here, be prepared to drool.

Well, I'm going to have to go now, dear readers, I hope you enjoyed taking part in the unwrapping of Hen's gifts? Hugo and I are now going to his Mum and Dad's for supper, which will be enjoyable. Have a lovely weekend. Take care, and see you next week. Love Vanessa xxx

Opening Hen's gifts!

Oh hello! So nice of you to stop by, d'you fancy sharing a bit of gift opening with me? It's very exciting gift opening. This is all part of the correspondence/swap that Hen and I have going on, which started a few months ago. Hen started it all off with a parcel of fabulous gifts, which you can look at here, and I followed the next month with my gifts, which you can see here.

This is how the story starts. The doorbell rang yesterday, and I opened the door, to see the postman standing there with a box. I looked at him quizzically, wondering what I had ordered. I hadn't ordered anything, I realised it was Hen's parcel for this month! SO exciting. I trotted down stairs with the box, feeling very happy, put the kettle on, made a cup of tea, and stood contemplating the box. It's a BOX! I thought, a BOX of goodies!

Out came the scissors, and hey presto! The box was open. Woo-hoo! Pink tissue paper, a very good sign is pink tissue paper.Shall we have a look underneath the tissue paper?

Oooooh! What's this then? Looks very interesting, very exciting............

Underneath that lovely pink tissue paper, is this glorious fabric, and this glorious fabric, when lifted out of the box, turns out to be a...........................

A GORGEOUS bag! And it's all mine, mine, mine! Hen made this bag, and it's beautiful.

Check out this lovely added extra detail, this tag that Hen has made, embroidered. So much work went into this, and it's beautiful.

And check out Hen's label. So simple, but so stylish, love it! 

Now, do you think there might be something inside the bag?

Ooohh yes! There's something inside the bag!

Ooh! Ooh! Oooohhhhhh!

A million oooohhhhs. 

Now, this is the point I'm going to have a break, it's been taking a long time to get these photos in order, and typepad (my blog server) has very kindly been leading me a merry dance, and making blogging much harder than it should be. Plus, that small glass of Sherry has gone to my head, and I don't trust myself to be coherent, the keys on the keyboard seem 'odd'. So I'm going to continue my gift opening escapade tomorrow, if you'd like to join me then, there are some gorgeous gifts to be seen and ooohhhed and aaahhed over.

I'm now going to go and have a large glass of water. Honestly, a little glass of Sherry on a cold evening, and I'm all over the place. I don't drink much alcohol, I imagine you've guessed that by now. So see you tomorrow dear readers, I hope.
Love Vanessa xxxx